


c

by daireann



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 07:46:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8615590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daireann/pseuds/daireann
Summary: Susan needs to finish what she came to do.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers up to end of Season 4, none of the characters in this work belong to me!
> 
> I love playing around with alternative endings to the I/M storyline (mainly because I still haven't gotten over the real one, hmph). This one has been floating around in my head for a while, so time to get it out.
> 
> I have played a bit fast and loose with the timeline, as well as how White Stars work. Can't claim credit for the type of drive either - I wish I could recall where I had first heard the term gravimetric so I could credit it.
> 
> The title refers to the abbreviation used by physicists for the universal constant of the speed of light.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Commander Susan Ivanova is not fluent in Minbari, but she doesn't need to be to interpret the insistent tones of the White Star’s main computer. Bad things are happening to her ship and her work is not done.

  
The viewscreen is erratic; when it does flicker into life she can see much to make her fiercely proud; the sky around her is littered with the remains of Shadowtech destroyers. But there is one sight dominating the screen, one sight that still frightens her, that drives her on. One Shadow-enhanced destroyer remains, seriously damaged but still a serious threat. Its captain is desperately trying to build up speed to jump, trying to retreat, whilst Susan is trying everything she can to stop it. She doesn't have much time left; hell, she doesn't have much ship left.  
Hammering at a control panel, a familiar phrase from the computer tugs at her memory.

_Wait, there's a comms channel open?_  
“Hell, _now_ you manage to get me a channel?!” She'd blindly requested the channel to Mars just after the battle started and a lifetime ago, for no other reason than she felt it was important that _someone_ knew that they were fighting Shadow-enhanced ships, no matter what the outcome.

  
“Susan? Is that _you_?”  
Of course it's John; who else would manage to contact her in the thick of battle? It's enough to make her give a short laugh in disbelief; at least Stephen and Michael have managed to do their part.  
“Yes, it's me. Listen, I don't have much time. They have Shadowtech, John. We’ve destroyed most of them, but there's still a destroyer left. I can’t let them jump”  
Sheridan can hear the warning sirens and klaxons in the background.  
“What's your status, Susan?”  
She ignores him.  
“I can catch them before they jump, ram them.We can finish them!”  
“Negative, Commander! You’ll-”  
She cuts him off.  
“John, if they get away, if they get to Mars, everything that happened was for nothing. The Shadow War, Coriana 6, the battle for the Station….All of it will have been for nothing, if that Shadowtech gets loose. I won’t let that happen.” She pauses; her ship is rocked by another blast from somewhere deep below.  
“Tell Delenn I'm sorry about her ship. I gave the order to abandon ship a few minutes ago. The crew should have had plenty of time to escape”  
“Commander, get off that ship -”  
“Captain, you promised. And besides, the gravimetric drive is failing”  
She says it matter if factly, as if it's of no consequence that she's sitting aboard a ship that's about to do a good impression of a collapsing star. She knows she's right, she knows that this is what they came for, and John knows it too, now. He tried another tack.  
“Where’s Marcus?”  
“I told him to leave with the rest of the crew. Pretty sure he’s ignored me.” She’d immediately been suspicious about how quickly he’d acquiesced to her order to abandon ship, but she'd been too occupied fighting to do anything about it.  
There’s a pause whilst John lets the situation sink in.  
“She’s right, you know”  
Marcus’ unexpected appearance startles her, and she turns to see him walking calmly onto what's left of the control deck.  
“Goddamnit, of course I am right. I am always right!” For once she is certain, she is sure; this is exactly what she is here to do. Her mind is clear, any doubts long since gone.  
When Sheridan speaks again, she can hear the resignation in his voice, but also his pride.  
“All right. Godspeed, Susan”  
With exquisite timing, the comms channel went dead.

  
“What are you doing here, Marcus?”  
“Well, it's like you said - if that ship gets away…”  
“I told you to leave with the crew” Her heart’s not in the rebuke though, and she finds that she's strangely pleased, and comforted by his presence.  
“You're not going to be able to steer this ship by yourself, and defend against what's left” As if to reinforce his point, they're hit by a glancing blow from the retreating destroyer.  
“And I’m the only pilot you’ve got” She can't help but laugh fondly at him. Suddenly, everything about him, about her, about this fight, seems perfectly natural, feels preordained, makes perfect sense.  
“I thought you wanted to live forever?”  
“Oh, we will” There's a soft smile on his face.  
She nods, and they get to work.

  
At the moment before impact, she slips her hand into his, and he squeezes it tightly in return.

  
_Minbar, Minbari Federation Homeworld, 17 years later._  
John Sheridan, president of the Interstellar Alliance, Entil’Zha of the Rangers and all around hero shivered and pulled his coat closer, wishing he'd worn something warmer. It was much colder than he had expected on this rocky outcrop, an hour’s walk from the nearest village, but he had wanted to be far above the lights of habitation, to give himself the best chance of seeing.

  
It was a crisp, clear night. He'd worked out the astromath the old fashioned way, with a pen and charts, late at night with a glass of whisky; he felt she’d approve. The idea had come to him shortly after the service they'd held back in Babylon 5; he’d wondered whether he'd be able to see the brief, superintense burst of visible radiation emitted from the White Star’s gravimetric drive when it failed. Given the distances involved, it would take years for any such light from her ship to be visible, and the chances of the visible axis aligning were small. But then so much of that they had done had seemed improbable, if not impossible, that he was almost certain he would see it.

  
As he waited, cold and sombre, he thought about all they had done together, how much she and Marcus hadn't seen. He'd never known the station without her, and he felt the loss keenly, even 17 years later. But most of all, he'd missed her during the Telepath War, when he’d needed people to trust, and known -

  
And then he saw it. A brief, brilliant, pale blue scintillation, high above the horizon, fading quickly to a silvery glow. Long after it had vanished, his eyes still refused to blink, refused to acknowledge their end.

  
“Farewell, Susan”, he whispered quietly, and began the long walk back home


End file.
